A Run in
by Allysmurfy
Summary: A team of specialist are being formed by intelligence agencies around the world. When MI6 gets offered to take part, they think "What can we add?" The answer was one Alex Rider.
1. Chapter 1

A what? A disclaimer? You mean I suppose to say I don't own Alex Rider, and don't have the copy write papers? I will never ever say that! Oh wait...oops

Alex walked down the streets of London, stopping every once and awhile to look in the display window, before continuing to walk. He was going to the Royal and General Bank to meet with Blunt and Jones who had called him there.

Alex was now 16, and school was about to be out. He had been counting the days until the summer holidays came. Right now, there were only three days left, all of which were full of tests. When he arrived at the bank, Alex stood and stared at the spot, where two years ago, he was shot. Sniped. The guard that was manning the front door, who had heard of the incident, smiled slightly at the boy. Sighing, Alex knew that he would have to go in there sometime, and as... someone always said, ''There's no time like now".

Alex strolled up to the elevator, clicked the button, and heard the ding of the doors opening. Alex strode in, smiled at the camera that he had located a couple months ago. The camera gave a slight twitch. So, Henry is on monitoring duty. _Good, he will let me in with the guns... and the knives, and that pair of nun chucks._ Henry was an agent who happened to owe Alex from the mission they did together in North Korea. Alex had saved him from falling to death and then, later, saved his job. The doors dinged again and Alex arrived on the 17th floor. Alex walked quickly, not wanting to be stopped by another agent. The last time that happened… it ended very badly.

Alex walked up to Blunt's door, and strode in without knocking.

~~~~~~~~Pov switch~~~~~~

Ms. Jones stood next to Blunt and stared at the four people in front of her. Each one was from another agency. A tall tan man, whose file said his code name was Ricochet, came the ASIS. A brown haired woman, who was sitting in the blue cushion that was across from Alan, came from the Mossad and was given the name Shadow. Another man was leaning against the wall, his dark skin making him stand out even more in the gray room. He was called Ikan from BIN, otherwise known as the Indonesian State Intelligence Agency. Another woman sat in the other chair, her name was Abby Morgan from the CIA, and her code name was Sair.

The major intelligence agencies decided that a team of experts should be assembled, but of course, some wanted nothing to do with it. The team was one very much like the U.S G.I Joes. Each specialized in something different, and each were the world's leaders in their profession. If they weren't the best, then they were pretty darn close to it. MI6 had faced a dilemma when they were asked if they wanted to join. The saw the agents who were already in it, and saw only one thing they could add to it: Alex. Ms. Jones's thoughts were interrupted when the agent from BIN, Ikan, spoke, his voice slightly tinted by his accent.

"Where is your agent? He was supposed to be here five minutes ago." Alan looked up from his papers and spoke.

"Do not worry, he will be here soon." A few minutes later they heard the elevator door open, but they and Ms. Jones couldn't hear any footsteps. Only she knew the boy wouldn't knock. The door swung open and showed one very pissed Alex Rider.

~~~~~!~~~~~!~~~~~!~~~~~

Alex was furious. He threw open the door to find six pairs of eyes on him, four of which he did recognize. _Threat_, his mind screamed. Alex made his face into a mask instantly, and he locked away any emotion he had been showing.

Alex looked around the room; a man was standing up, hovering between the two chairs and Blunts desk. He looked tan, his hair was a light shade of blond, and his muscles weren't profound, but they were there. The chair he was closest to sat a woman, who Alex guessed was Israeli. Next to the Israeli woman sat another woman, whose hair was blond, but had a blue highlight going through it. Alex guessed she was American. A man was leaning against the wall, who happened to be studying Alex quite thoroughly. The man was Asian by the look of it, and from Alex's time in Bangkok, he guessed Indonesian. Alex spoke, his voice betrayed his face, and Alex let it.

"Don't tell me you arranged a play day Blunt! I mean, I'm thankful and all, but I have three more days of school left. So, if you could hold off 'till then, it would be appreciated—" He was interrupted by Blunt.

"Quiet! You will go now—" However, Blunt was quickly cut off by a knife sticking out of the desk. It quivered less than a centimeter from his left hand.

"I plan on finishing my tests, Blunt, and I really don't care who these people are. They can wait three days." Alex turned to leave, he heard Blunts voice echo out into the hall.

"How the hell did he get a knife it here?" Alex yelled back while stepping into the elevator.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!

Abby was sitting in a chair when the door was thrown open. She had heard the elevator door ding, but she didn't hear the footsteps of the teenager that was now standing in the door way. _Wait, a teenager? Shouldn't he be on his way home or something…? H_er thoughts changed when the kid spoke. His voice sounded annoyed and severely pissed off. What shocked her even more, was that the kid called the head of MI6, Blunt. Not Sir or Mr. Blunt, just Blunt. Within moments, the kid had walked out, leaving a knife a centimeter from the directors hand. Ikan spoke again.

"That was your agent?" Mr. Blunt nodded.

"Yes, that was Devil." The brown haired woman next to her, Shadow, spoke up, her voice dripping with venom.

"Why aren't you giving the order to bring him in?"

"Because last time it took everyone here to bring him in, and we still lost him. Give him his three days, but right when his school lets out, he better be back here." It was a dismissal. The four slowly walked out of the room, and in turn the building. As soon as they got in the car and started driving towards the hotel, Ikan spoke.

"A teenager! They are using a teenager!" Abby spoke for the first time with in the hour.

"Yes, but it seems he is very good at what he does. Not everyone can throw a knife at the head of MI6 and walk away."

Ms. Jones had called earlier in the morning. She had told Alex to bring his SAS uniform to the bank and to be wearing it, and bring whatever weapons he had in his possession. The last day of school went by uneventfully. At three thirty, when the bell rang, Alex grabbed his backpack and headed towards the loo to change. Once changed, he stared towards his motorcycle. He got it, curtsey of Smithers, for his sixteenth birthday. Alex was at the front doors of the school when a voice called out to him. He recognized it at the schools therapist: Ms. May.

Ms. May had brown hair, probably in her late thirties, and carried around a clipboard. She wore a light blue shirt and a spring green sweater over top. On her feet were about two centimeters worth of heels.

"Alex! Mr. Bray wants to talk to you in his office for a moment!"

Alex sighed and walked towards Ms. May and the headmasters office. He opened the door and noticed that almost all of his teachers were in the room, including his gym teacher, Mr. Rendell. Mr. Bray gestured to the chair in front of him, Alex took off his backpack and slumped into the chair. He felt all of the teachers eyes on him. Mr. Cooper, Alex's English teacher, spoke first.

"Alex, you did very well on the end of the year tests. So, we have some good news, and some bad." Mr. Bray continued after the man broke off.

"The good news is that we are letting you come back next year… if you stop getting '_sick_'. The bad news is, we can't let you back if you continue to do this. We understand your uncle's death was hard on you, but remember you have people here that want to help you. So, this summer we want you to see Ms. May for a few sessions, and maybe take a few summer programs in—" He got cut off by Ms. May, who was looking at his uniform.

"Alex, why are you wearing military fatigue?" Alex quickly thought up a lie.

"I'm going to military camp to get myself '_straightened out_' and will be gone all summer—" He was interrupted by Ms. May.

"Why do you need that uniform? It looks an awful lot like my cousins old SAS one, and what have you gotten yourself into that you need to go to a military camp to get help? Drugs? A gang?" She said motioning towards his gym teacher. "Tom." Mr. Rendell walked over to Alex's bag, picked it up, and dumped it. Books, paper pens, and pencils came falling out, followed by several bullets. Alex gulped, good thing he had put all his other weapons on him. _Well, except for the shuriken..._ which then fell out of the bag.

Mr. Rendell then moved in front of the door, with his arms crossed, efficiently blocking it. Ms. Weis, the science teacher, picked up one of the bullets, and spoke.

"Mr. Rider, why do you have bullets…and a... shuriken, in your bag?" She took his bag, and opened up another pocket, she raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"You also seem to have some very powerful pain meds. Where did you get all these things, Alex?" Alex gulped and shuffled his feet, stalling for time.

"Some of the kids think its funny, to put things in my bag—" He was interrupted ,again, by Ms. May.

"Yes, that would explain the bullets and the shuriken, but not the pain medication." She said, looking down at the label and saw that the doctor the had written the prescription, was the same one who had sent the sick notes. He had also written on the label that it was for Alex.

"In fact, these meds are meant for you! They have your name on them." Thinking quickly, Alex replied with a half lie.

"I didn't really have an appendix taken out. I had… a more serious surgery. I didn't want people to know about it and…I really should get going." With that Alex snatched his bag, filled it back up, and swiftly walked out the door. He was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. He jumped slightly, and caught the hand in his grasp, his eyes flashed dangerously. The hand belonged to Ms. May, who then spoke.

"Alex, we can help." The boy shook his head. They couldn't help. As the teen walked down the hall, Ms. May's voice echoed after him.

"Good luck!"

Alex notated the words Ms. May said, and hoped he wouldn't need them. He ran out of the building, and down the school walk gathering many odd looks from his fellow students, he paid no mine to them. Alex swung his leg over his ocean blue and silver streaked motorcycle, given to him by Mr. Smithers. Who was probably his one of his only friends at MI6.

From the phone call he had gotten from Ms. Jones that morning he knew he was expected to be at the bank by 4:15, his meeting with his teachers had held him till 3:55. Alex had 20 minutes to get to the bank which included the traffic, numerous stoplights, and old grannies in their sedans. It turns out he made it with a minute to spare. Alex parked his motor bike by the curb across from the bank, turned off the engine and pocketed the keys. He entered the building heading straight towards the lift, not surprised to see Ms. Jones standing in the lobby waiting for him.

"Good you came right on time, now when we go up there Mr. Blunt is going to refer to you as Devil or Cub, the other agents are already there". She spoke as she joined him in his stroll towards the elevator, stopping when the doors closed. Alex shuffled his feet thinking of a way to break the awkward silence between them. He spoke when they were half way towards the 16th floor, he words laden with guilt and overall shame.

"I'm sorry" Ms. Jones stared at him before talking again.

"Alex we agreed that never happened" The boy snapped back.

"But it did happen, and if I lost my morals then you would be dead!" The woman opened then closed her mouth.

"You were upset and mad…and I'm glad you still have your morals, and I hope you always will have them". The lift's door opened and Ms. Jones stepped out, Alex followed quickly behind. They had reached Blunts door when Alex spoke up again.

"There dead all of them my Mom and Dad, Ian, Ash, and Yassen? There all not breathing." She paused eye brows raised it slight surprise.

"You cared for Yassen?" Alex stared at her aggravated.

"You didn't answer my question". She brought her eyes up to his, and stated

"Yes" like it was a fact or a well known statement, and for all it was worth Alex could tell she wasn't lying. They entered the room and four out of the five pairs of eyes trained on them, they had obviously heard the conversation that had gone on just a moment before. Blunt looked up, his face impassive, he held out his hand motioning to Alex to give him something.

"I would like it if you handed over all the weapons you have on you right now, before we debrief. I will give them back later". Alex gave him a hard stare, one that would make human flinch, the man in front of him didn't. Moving slowly Alex removed the gun on his shoulder and set it on the desk, then the other one on his ankle, the four knives he had on strapped to each limb, the set of shuriken he had under his belt, and finally the pair of num chucks in his pocket. Ms. Jones looked at him, and said rather bluntly.

"Are all those weapons necessary?" Alex nodded and replied.

"Why yes, yes they are" as he flung himself into one of the open seats.

"Now that we are all here I can talk about your upcoming training, you five are being sent to Wales, more specifically Beacons Brecons Where you will be learning how to work together as a team and otherwise get to know each other. Agent Daniels will be in charge of your training other than that you will have a unit with you to show you the ropes. After a two week course you will be sent back here for you mission details. Dismissed, Cub could you stay behind for a second." The four adults left the room without as much as a look back. The door shut loudly behind them. Alex turned his glare onto Blunt as he spoke again.

"Your unit, K; will be your guides, there new member is X-Ray, whom you have met, I believe in Australia


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone! Just as promised! its update, a day before my Birthday...Skylaar Wolf has agreed to help me write this, so the next chapter is going to be done by her.**

**AN/ No, nope. Not at all? I wish I owned AR..maybe just maybe for my birthday? No? okay then...**

Alex's head filled with questions, he wondered how many would get answered before he left. A major headache was looming in front of him. Taking a deep breath, he asked the first one that came to him mind.

"Why is my name Devil, instead of Cub?" Blunt answered, surprising Alex a little it was almost always Mrs. Jones answering his endless questions.

"All Special Operatives have a codename. Do to your uncanny luck we gave you Devil. Agents are given these code names after they finish five successful missions. You are only using it now because this is the first time it was needed." Alex nodded. Devil, it did suit him...he was ready to ask his next question.

"Why is X-Ray in the British division of the SAS?" Mrs. Jones answered.

"We offered him a job, that was better one then the one he currently had at the time, we also said that he might have the chance to help you. He was quite eager.' Alex nodded the man was probably sorry about the mine field…Alex nodded and stood up, his hand out stretched for his weapons. Before Blunt handed him his weapons he took out a box and a large yellow envelope.

"The envelope has the information regarding your teammates; the box is a little gift from Mr. Smithers." Alex nodded and stuffed the box and envelope under one arm. He reached out for his weapons again.

Blunt's face twitched into a small frown as he remembered what Alex could do with those weapons, what Alex could do to him. Alex shrugged when he realized that he would not be getting his weapons back at the moment. Why would he need them at that hell hole anyway? He would get new ones or get them back later. It did not matter to him as he strolled out the door, not waiting for Mrs. Jones farewell.

He found as he walked out of the office, that the group of people; his team. Weren't there, the bunch of spies had probably gone down to meet with the car that Beacon Brecons had undoubtedly sent.

They had. It wasn't the best choice as a 'cover' vehicle, heck it wasn't even a car. They military base had sent what they had. A dirty, muddy, old rusty commando jeep; Alex looked down the road from where it came. The tires on the jeep were filled with so much mud, and crap. It had left a trail which if Alex guessed led all the way back to the camp. He snickered at the thought of someone following it.

Alex shifted the box and envelope into a new potion as he walked across the walkway, automatically avoiding the spot where he was sniped.

As he stepped into the mud coated vehicle five pairs of eyes followed his every move. It was going to be a long ride. His every movement watched, how did Blunt think they were going to be a team? A few hours later, Alex was still in the jeep bounce up and down the dirt road. The group hadn't talked much, they had just identified themselves, and the rest of the ride was in silence. He couldn't really blame them, going to a military base with a sixteen year old as your partner? If they thought he was like his classmates the groups of agent's were in for a surprise. Alex then turned his thoughts to Wolf; he hadn't said a word to that man after he told him Grief had died. What did Wolf think of him now?

And X-Ray? He was probably still feeling guilty about the minefield…No he wouldn't think of that now…he would wait, till tonight when he was reading his partners files. The files themselves weren't that thick, and now looking at them he noticed he had four copies of his own file, presumably to give to his partners. Alex decided to take a peek into one.

**Agent, Devil, SAS codename Cub**

That was all he got the chance to see, because at that moment the jeep stopped. Sending up a wave of mud that splayed outwards stopping a few feet away then fell to the group in huge drops, the spray's rebound splashed the jeep lightly, Alex bet he wouldn't be about to notice the difference. Alex shoved the files into his backpack and hopped out, sending up even more mud. God how he hated here, god how he hated K Unit, it was going to a very long two weeks, filled with mud.

Alex saw the Sergeant coming over. The Sergeant looked the same as he did when Alex first met him, grey hair, no beard and the wary look on his face. The group of spies snapped to attention, all lined up straight; staring straight ahead, Alex heard the thumping of the man's boot coming closer to him.

He heard the man take a deep breath; Alex prepared his ears for a lashing. It never came instead the Sergeant whispered in his ear.

"You've got a new name, but this isn't a place for schoolboys. I told you that the first time I'm telling you it again now. I may not be able to boot you, but I can sure make your stay here…hellish". With that he stepped away, gave Alex one look over

"Attention, Soldiers you will be here for a fortnight. For the first week you will be doing team building activities together. You will also be engaged in one of our five divisions. Enough of this now, you have the rest of the day to relax and 'get to know each other' Go to the extra cabin, Devil I believe you know where that is". With a final growl he turned and left. _Hopefully _Alex thought while walking towards the spare cabin_ I won't have to talk to anyone in K-Unit today._

The wooden cabin was musty; a mildew smell seeped into the wood work. It wasn't going to come out with all the rain in the area. There were two bunk beds and one small cot, for him. He laid down his stuff by it and sat on the cot. The others entered slowly taking in the two windows, five beds and the one door. The two men took the bunk closest to the door. The two women took the bunk next to the window, he was by the second. Spider swung herself up to the top part, where she sat staring at him intently. Alex undisturbed spoke to her.

"You're not very frightening, you know?" The sound of his voice made the others turn to look at him. Ikan asked the first of many questions to come.

"You would know?" Alex responded with a nod, he would get through the first questions. He wouldn't reveal anything more than the necessary, hopefully his file didn't either.

"I seem to be holding five copies of my file, you wouldn't happen to want one would you?" Ikan shuffled, Ricochet edged closer and Spider went to stand by the American woman. Alex handed a file to Ricochet, who took it and stepped back. It wouldn't hurt to take a peek at his file again. Alex was curious.

**Agent, Devil, SAS codename Cub**

**Born, in England 19****

**Appearance, height is around 172 cm, around 5'8. Eyes-Hazelnut Brown Hair-Fair blond**

**Has been in service for two years, and the agent has completed enough training to join Alpha sector. Any more information on Agent Devil is classified; any more information on Alpha sector is classified. Clearance level needed 13/13. **

Well it didn't give too much away; heck if he was them he would be infuriated at the lack of information. Well now it was time to have a peek at their files, before they started exploding on them. Alex really hoped this wasn't going to be another K-Unit.

He couldn't think about now, he had a hard choice to make. Get information now, by staying up and reading the files or going to sleep and being prepared tomorrow. His choice was made for him when Sair, the American woman spoke, the questions had come again.

"What do your parents say about all this?"

Now how was he going to answer that? Should he avoid the question? Or answer it? He decided to go with a shrug. Wasn't really a lie, he really didn't know. The group wasn't satisfied but their questions were halted momentarily when Alex decided he would go to sleep, instead of reading the files. Alex would wake up early for that.

* * *

Abby was confused, what did a shrug mean? He didn't know or care about was his parents thought? Or was the kid confused like her? Well her questions would have to wait. The kid decided to go to sleep. It was probably a good choice, but she couldn't help to think about the impossibly short file the kid had. Abby also knew that Ikan had tried to look up, through some shady means and his computer got crashed, all information that was on it got taken and then the computer was stripped clean, the Asian man couldn't even turn it on now.

**AN/ If you want to see my progress on stories or just my life in general go to my profile.**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN/ I'm so sorry this took so long. Its partly my fault, and well...some other peoples fault. So with out further ado I do not own Alex Rider, I own my characters and the chapter is kinda a filler with a ending that just stops. But hey! Read and love.**

* * *

Alex's sleep didn't last long for a normal teenager, but then again he wasn't normal. His clock read 04:30, and he knew that he would have to be at the dining hall in about an hour. Deciding to stay in the relatively warm bed, Alex grabbed the folders that contained his new teammates' files, at the same time wrapping the thin blanket around him. The information on his team mates was about the same amount as his file.

**Agent, Morgan**

**Codename, Sair**

**Born, The United States of America 198***

**Appearance, 6' even. Blue eyes, Blond hair, Caucasian.**

**Has been in service for nine years, and is stationed at Langley. Any more information on Agent Sair is restricted; any more information on her placement or division is classified. Clearance level needed, 10/15. **

**Sair specializes in deception and languages.**

It was almost a carbon copy to his, just a few things were changed, though. He hoped he would gleam more information out of the other files. Another question surfaced in his mind, what languages did the woman know? Sighing softly, Alex looked around the sparse cabin. Soft breathing could be heard coming from Sair and Shadow's bunk. They were asleep, and it sound like Ricochet was also a sleep… if the soft whistle meant anything to go by.

Ikan, who Alex knew went to bed later, was now staring at him, eyes opened. Alex was wondering how long he had been awake when it dawned on him that he could sleep with his eyes open, a unexpected surprise. Alex was already thinking of how that talent could be useful. Shaking his head softy as he chuckled, Alex took out the next file: Ikan's.

**Agent, Sukarno,**

**Codename, Ikan**

**Born, Broneo, Indonesia 197***

**Appearance, approximately 6'2". Green eyes, Black hair, Indonesian.**

**Has been in service for eleven years, currently is in BIN. Any more information on Agent Ikan is prohibited; any more information on him classified. Clearance level needed 15/15. **

**Ikan specializes in Technology, such as hacking and building gadgets, is above average sword combat. **

Had Ikan tried to find out more about him, Alex wondered if Smithers virus had gotten into the man's computer if he did. That would be yet another reason why the man didn't like him. Alex's clock beeped; it was five. Had time pasted that fast? Alex shoved the files away, keeping Ricochet's and Shadow's separate from the rest. He changed and splashed his face with some water. The others were starting to wake, and get ready. Alex looked at his clock again: 05:15.

He went about making his bed neat so he wouldn't get yelled at by the Sergeant. He then picked up the files and put them in his duffel bag, which he promptly shoved under his bed. The clock read 05:20 when Alex was done lacing up his boots. _Good._ He thought they had given him the same pair as last time, saving him the trouble of breaking them in and getting even more blisters. At 05:25 everyone was ready to go and Alex lead the way to the dining hall.

The white washed room was filled with soldiers. Correction: people who despised him and loved to call him _Double O' Nothing, _and other vulgar names. The din quieted for a moment and shouts came from the new recruits who hadn't seen him before. His eyes locked with the man he knew as Wolf who looked the same as ever. The man's head had gone up as soon as the door opened, so had X-Rays. Alex switched his gaze from Wolf to X-Ray and tried to mentally tell him to act as though he didn't know him.

His exposure was the last thing on his mind as Wolf slammed him back up against the door. Man! He forgot how quick the man was when it came to fighting. Alex decided that the smartest thing to do was wait and see what Wolf wanted to tell him. Alex took a moment to breath and focus on what he was hearing. Whispers where going through the hall, some men were yelling at Wolf to go ahead and beat the guts out of him; Alex hoped the man would not.

Time seemed to stretch until Wolf finally spoke.

"You shouldn't have killed Grief and then make a statement like, 'I sleighed him'! What do you think you're doing? This is a world for adults! Not bloody schoolchildren damn it, and to think I took several bullets for you!" Seeing as the man vented most of his rage Alex dared himself to speak.

"I did kill Grief, furthermore, I'm not upset about it seeing as he tried to dissec- kill me." Alex quickly corrected himself. They didn't need to know every little gruesome bit.

"Besides the man was absolutely bonkers, I couldn't just let him fly away!" Wolf let out a sigh in frustration and dropped Alex. Alex then calmly sorted out his uniform; he couldn't have the Sergeant yelling at him for a wrinkled uniform before he did any exercises. The dining hall went back to its normal level of conversation after Wolf sat down. Alex went and got food, his unit trailed him. Not saying anything about his 'reunion' with Wolf.

He set his tray down at K-Unit's table and heaved the mashed…something into his mouth. In between bites, he made introductions.

"This is K-Unit, my former unit when I was here last year for a fortnight." Alex briefly gave a small smile at the use of a Shakespearean word. His English teacher would be proud. He pointed to each members of the unit until he got to X-Ray.

"And X-Ray." Wolf looked up suddenly, Alex cursed mentally in Russian, they never told him X-Ray's name, and he just gave away that he already knew. Oh well the 'milk' already spilled, and there was nothing he could do now.

"X-Ray, you can just call me Devil". The man smiled and nodded.

"Long time no see, eh? I know I said this before, but I'm really sorry about the whole minefield thing, and about…" Alex could tell that he had been about to say Ash, but the man held his tongue when he remembered that they had company. The Australian continued.

"Anyways, I've heard some great stories over the years about you! Based off of what I know about you. I almost believe them!" He started chuckling, when he realized both K-Unit and Alex's teammates were staring at him.

"Um, so…do you know what you are going to be training in?" Alex shook his head no, and voiced.

"The Sergeant said something about five different groups?" X-Ray nodded yes and continued to explain.

"Yes, there are five different fields in which SAS units can learn, we K- Unit are experts in Air Troop which involves free fall parachuting, High Altitude-Low Opening (HALO) and High Altitude-High Opening (HAHO) techniques. There are others also, like a Boat Troop that specializes maritime skills using scuba diving, kayaks and Rigid-hulled inflatable boats. There are three other ones that I can explain, basically each one of you are going into a group to learn their skills for a week. Then, the next week is all about sharing information and trying to work together as a team."

Alex nodded; it made sense get everyone to learn something new and then teach it to the other members. Alex would also have to remember to ask his instructor to tell him the other ones. His watched beeped again 06:00 it was time to start training... with K-Unit.

Oh what a blast this was going to be.

The two units walked towards the assault course that seemed to be longer than it had been two years ago. Two years ago Alex had gotten his time down to... what? Fifteen... seventeen minutes? Anyway, K-Unit was convinced he could do it in fourteen. Alex would have to agree, the chase across Tokyo's roof tops was way more challenging than this looked.

Oh, how wrong he was; he had forgotten the mud. It seemed to get heavier every time he jumped, and his progress seemed to be slow. If this was real, he would be dead. So, in the last half of the course, he gave it his all. He ran and jumped, just like he would if he was running for his life. The change was drastic. He felt his adrenalin level rise, and things seemed to move more slowly, but he knew he was just moving faster. In the middle of climbing up a cargo net, Alex thought it would be a much better course if they sent something after you that you had to avoid.

Yet, apparently the SAS men hadn't thought that, so Alex had to think up some of his own Scorpia assassins where running after him. His time result was thirteen minutes and forty seconds. He could have cut that down almost a minute if he acted sooner. Sighing, he set off on a 'cool off' jog around the man-made lake that the SAS men used to swim in. The lake was a minute or two run for him, and when he got back he noticed that Ricochet was on the course at the moment, struggling to get up a smooth wooden wall.

He dropped to the ground and started his push-ups, Wolf was timing how many he could do in a minute. Alex kept it rather simple doing one a second. He knew it was better than most kids his age.

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**I know I didn't leave you a cliffy but...review and tell me what you thought. This chapter was about 1,600 words...Thank you Sklaar Wolf for editing. **

**You're reviews make me smile. My next update might be for Under Fire, and remember I update my profile page so you can see how certain things are going with stories, or my life in general.  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN/ Hey everyone. I updated. Sorry it took so long. This chapter is...necessary it has some bonding time, some knowledge on some skills for some 'special' people. Anyways...I don't own Alex Rider. Oh oh! I was thinking about doing something with Ms. May...the therapist that popped up in chapter one.**

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After Alex finished his push-ups, he moved on to sit ups and squat thrusts, and then back to running again. By the end of the testing, Alex's legs were aching and his chest was on fire. Sweat dripped down his face and into his eyes as he took a break. Alex lifted his head back up and took a swig of cold water; he felt the cold water go down his throat and into his stomach. He needed to be drinking more water, Alex noted. By the time everyone was done with their testing, rain had begun to fall, making the whole area muddy and slick.

Alex followed K-Unit into a building where the unit motioned them to sit in rickety fold up chairs. Another man came in; he was wearing a name tag that read 'Dr. Wilson'. The doctor began to speak.

"I am the language expert here at this camp. You may refer to me as Doctor. Now, I am here to see how proficient you are in certain languages." The doctor pause and Alex took that moment to speak up.

"What if we know languages that you don't?" The man shifted and asked. "Are there any other questions? Good." He continued on, not answering Alex or waiting for anyone else. "I will now start the test for Spanish, how many of you know Spanish?" Alex raised his hand and so did the American woman.

The doctor nodded and said. "I want you both to talk to me for a few minutes about the most important moment of your life, or at least one of them. Devil, you go first." Alex thought about what to talk about, should he talk about finding out how his parents died? Or when his uncle died, or when Jack died? Alex chose to talk about his uncle, it wouldn't give up that much information and he would be able to think about it without getting watery eyed.

"_One of the most important moments of my life, was early in the morning. I saw police lights flashing out my window, and I heard an officer knock on my door. That morning, I learned my uncle had died from a car crash because supposedly he hadn't been wearing a seat belt. The funeral was a few days later; Alan Blunt and Tulip Jones attended. It was then I first noticed a bugled in a man's pocket; he had a gun. These are some of the small events that lead me to work for Military Intelligence six." _Alex spoke rapidly, hoping that he would through Sair off guard. The doctor nodded, and told Alex that he didn't have a accent. The man motioned for Sair to speak, and she did.

"_I was sitting in a chair in the office of Alan Blunt, waiting for one of his agents to arrive. When the agent arrived, he was in a flurry. I noticed that the agent was mad, seething mad at the director. They exchange a few hot words and the next thing I knew the agent had flung a knife into the desk and stormed out, leaving a furious Mr. Blunt behind. In this moment I felt a great respect for the agent, I am happy to work with him."_

Alex hid his blush at what the American woman said, but he felt glad that one person on this team like him, or respected him. The man told Sair the same things he had told Alex. The process proceed with different languages-French, German, Russian, Italian, and Japanese. All of which Alex knew, but the man continued with Chinese, some Indonesian dialects like Malay and Tamil, and Arabic, Hebrew and what Alex thought was some kind of Scottish language, all of which Sair knew. Ricochet had been able to pick up on some of the Arabic, and a little German. Ikan knew his native language and English, same with Shadow.

Alex was learning Arabic, and was able to understand part of what Sair said, but most of it was a jumble of noise, Alex would have to remember to ask her for some help in learning that language. _If only Dr. Wilson had asked them about Latin,_ Alex thought. _I would be able to talk my head off and no one would understand. _Sighing once again, Alex looked at his watch and noticed that it was time for dinner. The group followed K-Unit out into the rain as they headed towards the mess hall.

The rush of warmth hit them as they stepped into the dirty room. The aroma of what seemed to be grilled meat and mashed potatoes greeted their noses, and they rushed up to the counter to get their food. Alex was shoved in between Sair and Ikan, who didn't look too pleased. Alex guessed the man was a regular downer, and the fact that he was stuck with a teenager made him worse than usual, but the man was preoccupied with getting his food and wasn't thinking about being nasty to Alex at the moment.

Alex felt his shoulder get nudged by Sair as she spoke to him in Spanish.

"_You are very good in Spanish, who taught you?" _Her voice sounded straight out of a dingy street; Madrid. Alex smiled and replied to her.

"_My uncle did. He was also teaching me Portuguese, but I never got the hang of that language. I wouldn't mind trying again sometimes though. I was also wondering if-" _He was cut off by a smiling lady who was serving him food. Alex found this predicament very, very weird. For one when did the mess hall ladies smile? And why was she giving him more food then necessarily? Alex decided not to question the generosity of the lady, and smiled at her as he continued to talk in Spanish to Sair.

"_You could help me in my Arabic, and if you know any Italian that would help too. Mine's a bit rusty." _Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sair nod, and then frown.

"_I wouldn't mine helping you, and how come she gave you more food than me? I need my food too." _Alex gave a short laugh.

"_Because I'm a growing teenager. Anyway, I think we should switch over to Japanese, Wolf knows this language and if he thinks we are saying anything interesting he might listen in." _Alex diverted his attention to Sair as they moved off towards the table that the rest of their group was at. In the next few moments several things happened at once. A boot from a SAS soldier came out of nowhere and the doors to the dining room opened.

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**AN/ Terribly sorry for the cliffy but I gotta get you hanging so you want to read whats next! Yes, yes...where to... I would like to thank Dream OfStories and Skylaar Wolf...and...all you reviewers. Sorry for the shortness. **


	5. Chapter 5

**AN/ This is not edited...this story no longer has a co writer and I am meaning to torment you with the identity of a certain person...I don't own Alex Rider Anthony Horowitz does and I heard that he reads his fanfiction. Anyways, Enjoy. **

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The mind was a extraordinary thing. It was able to process things much faster then a super-computer in most situations, like the one Alex was in now. The turn was that it happened in mere seconds, but Alex's brain made it seem unnaturally long. In the matter of seconds several things occurred to Alex. One the person who was entering was probably Ben, seeing how everyone else was already here; and two the boot that was about to trip him was going to make his food go _everywhere _and get on _everyone. _ Last, but certainly not the least it would make Alex look like a fool; a school boy.

So Alex did the only thing he thought was resealable. Alex leaned backward, giving himself more time, and jumped over the out stretched foot. Time seemed to sped up rapidly as he came down, his plate and silverware clanked, but the only mess he created was spilling some water on the fool. Which was quickly added to the puddles that the SAS men made. Alex had been lucky that the man that wanted to trip him had been distracted by the door opening, curious he looked up too. Alex saw not one person, but two. One was Ben, who Alex was told to expect, but the other...woman Alex had to think about for a moment before it hit him.

The shock was too much, it over came his impassive mask and caused him to stop in his tracks. The woman scanned the room, like any good agent would. She scanned the inter room before coming back to him, a small smile graced her lips. Alex could only stare stupidly as the lady approached him, and grabbed him by the shoulders. Unable to hug him because of Alex's tray she looked into his eyes and frowned, had she since something she last seen him? Heck when she last saw him she had been bleeding and he was about to do something that no one his age had _ever _done.

Alex, now remembering they were in the company of some sixty soldiers all of whom were completely silent. Composing himself, Alex adjusted his features to be friendly and warm but only towards the two new entries. Alex swooped down and placed his tray on the ground, when he straighten up he had a small frown on his face.

"_He _failed to mention you would be here." Alex sighed and then realized what he said was rather rude. "I'm sorry I'm just tired of being keep out of the loop half the time" The woman nodded and replied with a slight American accent.

"Well A-Devil" She grinned at this. "If it makes you feel any better, Byrne didn't tell me that you were the agent." Alex ducked his head with a small smile, the heads of intelligence agencies were all the same. Once again Alex remembered their surroundings and said.

"I'm starving and I'm sure you've been traveling so go grab some food and come sit at my table". Alex directed this statement towards both the spies. They both nodded and headed off to grab something it eat. Alex took the moment of complete silence of the mess hall to speak since he already had the attention of the men.

"I would appreciate it if no one tried to trip me or engage me in a fight I would prefer less people getting hurt because of their interactions with me." And with that Alex took that moment to head off to his table with his food and wait the return of...his friends? Alex didn't know what else to call them. They had both saved his life...multiple times and they tried not to be to mean to him, or too judgmental of Alex. So with a small smile Alex began eating the rather bland tasting food, and watch; or listened. As the mess hall regained its noise.

Caught up in his own thoughts he didn't notice the rest of his teammates plus K-Unit staring at him. When he did he shot them a glare, clearly annoyed at their obvious glaring. Shadow was the first to talk.

"We know so little about you, Devil. The amount of emotion you showed to those two was more then we have scene of you since you stormed out of Mr. Blunts office, and I know I'm more your history then ever". Alex dimly saw the rest of international spies nod their head, Alex could almost groan out load. He slipped up, he aloud some part of himself that he hadn't seen since he was fourteen. He held all the emotions behind a mask. Alex Rider did not look up from his meal when Shadow talked, and he didn't look up when their gazes continued to stare evenly at him.

Alex considerate if he should say anything. On one hand he needed his teem to trust him, but on the other hand Alex like to keep his past missions and his history private. Right before the two spies came back to the table, Alex spoke.

"I consider them my friends." At this statement, Ikan looked up at Alex with something akin to respect? Perhaps the man new from experience how hard it was to keep and maintain a friend ship in the spy world. Whatever questions the group had for him where cut off when Alex's spy friends arrived at the table and sat down.

Ben looked over towards his old unit and smiled at them which turned into a small laugh as he took in their shock expressions. Alex knew that there would be a lot of talking before they went to bed tonight. Sighing Alex shoveled down more of his bland food, he could really go for some salt. Once he was done he looked over towards the rest of the group and noticed they were starting to get up and slop their dishes.

The walk back to the cabin was silent despite their being seven people in a loose group. Once they were inside the cabin Alex headed over to his bunk to pull out the last of the four files he had on his teammates, Shadow's and Ricochets.

Leaning back Alex looked over Shadow's file as the other four of his unit filled the room, followed by the two visiting spies who were engaged in a conversion about explosions.

**Agent, Karīm **

**Codename, Shadow**

**Born, Israeli 198***

**Appearance, 5'3 even. Dark brown eyes, brown hair, Middle Eastren.**

**Has been in service for five years, and is stationed at *********. Has been studying for more then six with Dr. ****** Any more information on Agent Shadow is restricted; any more information on her placement or division is classified anyone asking will be taken care of immediately . Clearance level needed for view of file or questions, 17/18. **

**Shadow specializes in marine activities and poisons.**

Alex hid his risen eye brows behind the file. Poisons? Shadow was his teammate but still he would have to use the skills he learned in...that little island off the coast of Vince. Which from now on Alex would refer to as The Island that can not be named, or IC'tN. The teenage mind, is a true wonder Alex pondered.

His 'pondering' was broken when the argument about...whatever broken into shouts.

"It makes perfect sense! Can't use see?" Ikan nodded, Alex noticed when he became mad his accent was more noticeable.

Alex noticed that the Indonesian was mad at Ben. Not wanting to get caught in the middle of a verbal battle, or that matter a physical one; Alex slipped out of the cabin hopefully unnoticed. Alex walked out and stood on a small hill that overlooked some of the cabins. A light rain started to fail from the heavens as Alex looked over the land. Something didn't feel right, something was off in the camp. Alex didn't know what but something, for sure was going to happen.

Alex, as wrapped up in his thoughts as he was; didn't notice that some one had come out side with him.

"Alex". A voice said, the teenager turned around.

"Tamara Kinght" Alex said, looking up to the stars, he continued. "Does something...feel off to you?"

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**AN/ Yes...oh yes I did. Thank you everyone that has commented, and favorite-d and added me to their alert list...no hard feelings. ;)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer, I do not own Alex Rider, Anthony Horowitz does. I also didn't edit this, no one did yet wanted out here, sorry for its shortness.**

**For those of you who don't remember or don't know Tamara Knight is from Ark Angel and she saved Alex from getting drowned, a short time later she gets shot in the leg, she also has the very cool diamond edged shoe laces. Oh and by the way. Spider is now Shadow, I kept switching that around. Enjoy.**

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Tamara looked at Alex. He could feel her eyes on him when she spoke.

"Yes". The short simple answer was all Alex had expected from spy. Alex let out a long low sigh that caught the back of his throat like a moan. He heard Knight, chuckle and he stopped. He ran his hand through his hair- it was a habit that he had stopped but when he was fifteen because it was an obvious tick, a show of his emotions but right now. Right now in this hell hole full of mud he didn't care. Something was wrong- seriously wrong but he couldn't figure out what. He absentmindedly scuffed his foot into the ground for a few minutes before heading back to the hut. He found that Tamara and Ben had left probably to go and talk to K Unit. Alex bit his lip to stop a moan as he wondered _exactly_, what or _who_ their conversation was about.

Alex shut the door quietly and didn't bother to pull of his boots, they would have a night exercise in a few hours anyway. It would be a waste of time to unlace them to take the boots off and then re-lace them to put them on. The noise in the room quieted, it really hadn't been much in the beginning, as he entered. The group of professional spies tracked his movement across the room, to where he sat down on his bed. He leaned back on the cot and prompted his head up with the one pillow he had, and crossed his legs on the floor in front of him.

The young spy appeared relaxed and giving a ' I could care less' attitude towards the other members. The teenager watched as Ikan bit his lip, Shadow had a slight sneer on her face- Ricco was impassive and Sair was smiling lightly at him. Alex fought a frown that was about to appear on his face. Why was Sair smiling? Why wasn't she acting like the others? He would find out.

"I want ice cream, Ikan." Alex paused his voice completely serious when he spoke. "Do you think they have ice cream here?" The man couldn't help that his jaw was hanging open slightly, he snapped it shut quickly and growled. Ikan stalked over in a few short paces to be leaning over Alex.

"Boy, I don't care if your handpicked by Mr. Blunt. This. Is. A military camp, not a place for children goddamn it!" Alex smirked at the man that was leering over him. A brief thought of maybe he shouldn't be leading the BIN member on, but he shrugged and replied.

"I know that." Sarcasm was evident in his tone.

"I don't see why you would blow up at the mention of ice cream, it's not like it did anything to you." Alex replied in his snarky voice, and glanced around the room. Ricco was looking amused, he had probably guessed that Alex was egging on the Asian man- Shadow had a sneer on her face and Sair just looked confused.

Continuing Alex said. "Oh come off it Ikan- it's not like you wouldn't want ice cream. Besides I was just baiting you." The man had the grace to turn slightly pink of embarrassment as he stormed out of the cabin. Alex sighed aloud making everyone's eyes dart to him. Alex looked at his watch, they had two hours to kill before the 'mission'. Alex winced mentally at his choice of words. His mind had a morbid sense of humor. He leaned on his elbow and reached under the bed to grab his bag and yank it out. He saw the hair still in the zipper and the position the zipper was in and concluded that no one had touched his bag.

Opening it now he thought about the black box that Blunt had given to him, he had said it contained a few things from Smithers. He brought the box into the dim light the cabin had, and turned it around. There seemed to be no opening to it. Suddenly Alex realized he had his thumb on a finger pad and that it was scanning the digit. Alex contained a whistle as the box slide open, revealing a sleek shiny interior. He picked up the note that was in the box first and read it.

_Dear, Alex _

_I packed a few things for you this time my boy! I know you still have the explosive earring, and the belt with the survival equipment. Or at least version two of them I gave you last time, I decided, partly to do with time my dear boy not to give you anything over the top, and also on Mr. Blunt's orders don't want our technology getting into other spies hands. I've packed some of the diamond laced shoe laces that the American's invited. A satellite compass, on this you can contact us or call to help. I wouldn't drop it any higher than five floors though, and like everything else it is waterproof. Moving on I have an Extreme Ratio S.A.S combat knife- fitting no? Along with the knife, a chest holster for it. I sincerely hope you won't need it my dear boy. _

_Smithers_

_Oh, and just lick the paper it should designate. _

Alex did this and watched in fascination as the paper turned into nothing but a small pile of white flakes on the floor, that were soon scattered as Ikan burst the door back open. Apparently the man had cooled off and decided that he could come back and behave. Alex gave a small smirk at thought. The man behaved just like a teenager. Alex remembered one of the things that had been bugging him, who was the medic in their unit? He knew basic first aid but someone had to know more than that…

"Hey". He said grabbing everyone attention, he held a back a fidget as everyone's falcon like eyes trained in on him. "Who's the medic?".

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**Yeah, its short, yeah its not edited. **

**link to the combat knife, just take out the spaces http:/www. /extrema-ratio-sas-76-blade-combat-knife-p-239. html**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Yes, I know. Please, put down those pitchforks. I'm not giving up this. You see! I told you I wasn't. There isn't any excuses. I just hope your happy with this little amount of nothingness.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider or any of the characters in it, I own my own characters, like Sair, Ricochet, Ikan, and Shadow. If you have an idea to use one of these..characters just let me know. **

**Enjoy  
**

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"Whose the medic?"

Alex had a sinking feeling he already knew the answer.

"I have a advance training in field medication." Shadow said lightly, her eyes glinting. _Note to self _Alex thought. _Don't piss off the poison expert who is also the medic, she could 'accidentally' give you the wrong thing._

He looked around the room, from the small grimaces and Sair's slight twitch of a hand he guessed that they thought the same thing. He flopped back onto his bunk, making his hair fall in front of his eyes. He pushed himself up, and scooped the knife and harness into his hand. Alex shed his outer fatigue shirt, leaving a black undershirt on, and adjusted the harness over his shoulder. Slipping the knife into its place by his shoulder blade. Still facing his bunk he pulled on his shirt, and pocketed the GPS in his dark colored cargo pants. He looked at his Swedish watch, a gift from Ian some time ago. It was black, and told the time in too different places in the world, along with a stop watch. The material is was made out of was light metal, and it very hard to scratch. Alex liked the watch because of the small light it had that you could turn on to illuminate the face, which was covered in glass. They had about an hour till they had to start walking towards the field where the night exercise would start.

What could he do to pass the time? Talk to Sair in German? _No_, Alex thought. So the teenager was content with looking at the ceiling blankly for a hour. His patients lasted for five minutes, normally it would have lasted well past the hour that was required, but currently the teenager's mind which was in a semi new environment with new people. Alex Rider just had to know more. Idly, he stopped looking at the ceiling which was made from wood planks and said to his fellow teammates.

"Hey, would you _adults_" He added unneeded stress to the word. " Would you like to play Truth or Dare? You know the game where you give the person you ask a choice between truth or dare, and if they pick truth the person who chose you, can ask you a question, but if you pick dare you have to do what ever challenge that person presents you with." Alex's question was met with four other blanks stares. The answer was a resounding no. Sighing in defeat Alex though_ Maybe that's for the best_. _I don't think I would want to do any of their dares. _

Alex sat up on his bed. He could do with some food, sure but did he want a full stomach on the night exercise? Also, what should he bring? Was the Sargent going to give them paintball guns, or just a flag? The problem was that Alex didn't know, he knew nothing about the challenge ahead and his teammates who had _probably_ just met each other at the beginning of the week, and _probably _wouldn't work together when the time came. So Alex did all he could do, his fatigues were already dark enough to suite the forest at night.

He couldn't think of anything else, and so his mind was back to pondering what the challenge could be. Would they be going up against K-Unit? Or another team? He didn't even know if they were going to have teams. Alex sighed, and rubbed his head. He decided he wasn't going to think about it. Closing his eyes, Alex slipped into a light sleep for fifty minutes.

The sound of Shadow jumping down from her bunk with a 'thump' woke him up. He was up and out of his bunk with a single look at his watch. He was going to be _late _now! With a scurry that was still managed to look dignified, Alex ran towards field where they would get their instructions for the night exercise. His teammates followed after him easily, and they arrived at the field in a jumble. Quickly they scrambled to attention facing the always glaring Sargent.

"This, is what tonight exercise is going to entail." The Sargent started pacing in front of the group of spies. "You five are trying to reach a check point, which across the river in that direction". The Sargent pointed idly over his shoulder, and into the woods."Now, its a rather long walk, and you _spies_, won't be doing it at your leisure". He walked a short distance to the edge of the clearing and removed two duffel bags, throwing them at Alex's feet before he continued speaking.

"You'll find, a map, a compass, one torch(flashlight), five paintball guns, you all have two hundred balls each. Everyone has a different color. Cu-Devil, you're silver, Shadow,you're light blue, Ikan you're purple, Ricochet green, and Sair your yellow. Now, when K-Unit, gets here in ten minutes or so, I'm going to give them a map, a compass, paintball guns, and red paint balls." He paused looking them over.

"C-Unit, B-Unit, Agent Daniels, and Agent Knight are all in the woods, spaced out waiting to ambush you. The don't know your position currently. Everyone against you will be using radios on a secure channel." He paused, and took out a stop watch.

"You will fail if you get hit in a vital area with paint. You will fail if you don't arrive at the rendezvous point before dawn, which is at 530 hours. Do you understand?" He barked.

"Yes, sir!" The group replied.

"Good" The Sargent said smirking. "Because, you have four minutes to get your gear, and get gone".

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**AN: Ja, tis short isn't it?...Hm, well what did help write this time 'round was the unexpected story alerts. It made me smile. I'm not saying when the next update is going to be, because honestly I don't know. **


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: It's safe to say I feel guilty. Terribly guilty. Ah..there really are no words for it. I just hop you can put down those torches and pitchforks for a moment. I'd like to respond to some comments. I believe it way back in chapter five, that someone mentioned I should stop mentioning these made up missions Alex goes on. In the story I mentioned one about 'The Roof Tops of Japan' Well, I do believe I've seen someone do a fic about that(or at least it got mentioned again) Also to the review Selyra. Yes, I do know that. You see Selyra, it does tie in..Anyways. You all have to thank Selyra for this update. It made me so happy that someone found that. (Honestly I don't know how..) but anyways. Enjoy.**

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Ikan sprinted like a child after candy, and was the first one to the large sack of equipment. He picked up the folding map and the old pocket compass along with his purple paint-balls, then hefted a gun over a shoulder.

Two seemingly short minutes had gone by the time everyone was around the surveyors map. The circles and lines showed landmasses and their height above sea level in meters. It detailed the rivers, forests, and clearing in the Beacons area. There was a red dot to show where they were currently, and a 'X' mark to show their finish. Quickly scanning the map, Alex saw they would have to traverse the river gorge where the water was swiftly moving. When he had been here last, he recalled that the gorge had been to far to jump in most parts, and besides the zip line there was no fast way across. The zip line would leave them wide open for attack. Before, and after the river there's a large swath of forest. The woods would be dark and wet. Hopefully the damp ground would help cover any noise they made, but it might be a problem if the other units were to try and track them. After the second part of the forest the group had to get over a open ridge, which was probably like a lot of the other ridges around camp. It would be open, bare, and very rocky. Perhaps slippery if it started to drizzle later. The flag was in the middle of a open clearing, which was about two hundred meters from the end of the ridge. Or so the map said.

He observed Sair, who was looking at the map upside down, tilt her head and squint at it. "That river there looks pretty steep, how are we going to get across it?" Her hand had come up and traced the path of the gorge.

He saw Ikan give a little shrug. _Oh wonderful, we don't have a plan, and I bet he just wants to charge off into the woods. _Alex thought with some dark humor.

"I guess we'll see when we cross it" Ikan replied.

_Oh, yeah. Really smart Ikan._ Alex rolled his eyes discretely as Ikan set off into the green woods. The older man wasn't thinking clearly, or at all. Not thinking in the espionage business meant death, and Alex didn't like death. How the hell did the guy get on the team? Wanting to moan in frustration and throw his hands to the sky Alex followed behind the rest of the team into the woods.

After a minute or two of quietly walking in a northern direction, Alex stole a glance at his watch. _Crap. _Knowing the Sarge, and the behavior of the SAS men, Alex doubted they would get their full ten minutes of a head start. In fact C, and B unit had no such time restrictions. Sighing, he used his free hand to grab onto a tree to swing himself down the declining slope.

"Hey, Ri-"Alex was interrupted by a paintball connecting with the tree he just used as a support. _Darn, I hate it when I'm right about the bad things _"Ambush!" He yelled up to Ikan, as he dived behind a old, large gnarly tree. Another paintball splattered against the bark by his ear, the red goo ricocheted and leaked down his neck. _Crap! Crap! Where the heck are they! _Alex thought furiously. Rolling away, he grabbed at the dirt and foliage beneath him. He needed to get away from his previous hiding spot. Keeping his head down, and using various fallen trees he made a break for a large out cropping where the others were gathering. The forest floor was wet from all the rain the land had gotten, and soon his kit was soaked.

Alex stopped for a moment, and took large silent breathes through his mouth. _What do? What to do.._ his eye brows creased together in thought. He reached out with his left hand and quietly snapped a small vine of English Ivy. _This stuff really is everywhere. _Slowly, and carefully he pulled some of it up, bit by bit rolling the lengthening cord around his hand . _Now, if I was a SAS man. I'd be in the trees constantly scanning the ground for something moving. If I can make it seem like I'm farther ahead then I am.._ Suddenly he gave a sharp yank on the ivy, and watched in silent satisfaction as a flurry of leaves and sticks were disrupted.

Alex kept his eye sight parallel with the ground, and saw several paint-balls impact the earth. _At least two are in the trees, one seems to be quite high up based on the angle of the incoming shot. The other one is farther out, his paintball was arching down when it hit the log._

He heard a crackle from a radio behind him. _**Chsssh-This is Shark, Four targets spotted by rock cropping. C-Unit is in the process of-chssshhh**_. The sound was cut off as the wearer realized his ear bud wasn't in correctly. _Crap, yet again. _Alex bit his lip. The plus side was that he knew it was C-Unit in the trees. The downside about that was that he had no idea what C-Unit capable of. Another plus was now he vaguely knew the locations of three of them...Downside was that they had good vantage points-and one was behind him. The slip up with the radio had given him information as well, Alex had no doubt that C-Unit was about to lay siege to the rocky outcropping where the rest of his team was. He really only had two main options. Help his team, or not.

_We were sent to Breacons to learn how to work together..darn it._ With the decision to help, he now needed to figure out what to do. _One, get closer. Two, get higher up. Three, don't get caught._

When the footsteps from the solider with the com-unit was in front of him, and all focus was on his team Alex slowly moved. His destination was a nearby European Beach Tree. The smooth bark and curly limbs made it a very easy climb, one that he could do silently. Putting his back against the bark of one limb, and his feet shoved against another fork of the tree Alex was secure enough to take a shot. _If I take a shot now, I would give my position, and advantage away. _Huffing with annoyance, Alex leaned forward a bit, and looked ahead of his vantage point. He could see one of the SAS on the ground, he was the man who messed up his radio. Alex looked slightly to his left, scanning the trees for a hunting post where someone could sit for hours and wait. The hunting platforms would be hidden in the leaves making them very hard to spot. His next option was to look or a sudden movement, something that disturbed the trees on this windless night. There! A hundred meters in front of him, came the sound of paintball hitting leaves. The swish of the leaves, and their inward movement told Alex that someone from the outcropping had aimed at the man.

_It seems like one of my teammates found one of them. The question is if they hit the guy.._ No, they hadn't he could see the guy climbing out of the tree, and started coming towards Alex and the other SAS man on the ground. _So the attack had been a flushing attack..get the enemy out of the high ground, and you have a better advantage. Smart._

Now for the other SAS man, who was higher in a tree then previous on. _Where could he be.._ Alex glanced up, the dark sky made it hard to catch anything. He would have to rely on sound.

"I'm dead!" yelled a rough, irritated voice in the trees ahead of him._ Or he could rely on his teammates. There is defiantly and upside to having teammates. Now there's two on the ground about a hundred meters ahead of me. If I could get a hold of a com-unit I'd be able to listen in until they figured out it wasn't secure. There is also the matter of the fourth member of C-Unit, not to mention K-Unit is going to be on us momentarily if we don't move our butts. _

Alex paused for a second to think out a plan, scratching his non goo filled ear in thought. Moving swiftly Alex scampered out of the Beach tree, and leaned against the back of the tree. He checked over his paintball gun, making sure it wouldn't jam or catch. Tightening the barrel a bit, he poked his head out from behind the tree old soldier of a tree. To get a good, accurate shot at the two men in front of him, Alex would have to move a few trees up. The two men had taken cover behind a fallen tree. Both of them were laying flat on their stomachs. The one to the right had a hand reached up to his com-unit, and seemed to whispering into it. As soon as Alex shot someone they were supposed to be radio silent, however he knew that sometimes people didn't play by the rules.

It would be mean, but it would make sure that they couldn't radio for help. Keeping low Alex scurried across the underbrush keeping his movements light and quick, going from tree to tree. Pausing at each one to scan his surrounds. He made sure that the two men hadn't heard or seen anything, and that he wasn't open to the fourth member. Finally he came with in twenty meters of the dead tree that the two men were hiding behind. Checking his gun again, Alex nodded. _This should do nicely. _He took a breath, and kneeled, if the the man on the right was to turn his head to behind him and to the left Alex would have been caught. But, he didn't.

Alex took another breathe-closed his eyes and brought his gun up and fired twice. _**Pap-pap.**_ The short bursts oddly loud in the night. Yells of surprise, and slight pain came from the two men behind the log. He had hit them both in their left ears, which was a kill shot. It also messed up their com-units, or so he hoped. After a fair bit of cursing the two SAS men announced they were dead. 'Dead men' had to stay where they were killed until the end of the exercise, communication with the other hunters wasn't allowed. Ghosting up to them, Alex saw their eyes widen, and then narrow in furry. _Probably mad that a kid hit'em. _Alex snickered to himself.

They had placed their backpacks on the ground, ruffling through them Alex came away with a canteen filled full of water, a box of water proof; strike anywhere matches, and a bundle of climbing rope. _The rope wont do me much good if I don't have any other climbing equipment. And by I, I mean them- and they don't have any. _Frowning, Alex jammed the rope into his bag, he'd find some use for it. Next he took the ear pieces from the men, and checked to see if they were usable. They weren't. He got all he could from the 'dead' men, Alex gave them a small smirk and cautiously made his way to his team members.

The rocks where his team was hiding consisted of a bunch of good sized smooth, moss covered boulders, it formed a misshapen circle. _How to get to them without causing any friendly fire..I-_ His thoughts were interrupted when he was hit in the leg with a red paintball. _Crap! _Diving to the ground Alex rolled behind a rock. _Was K-Unit already on them, or was that the last member of C-Unit. _His unit members noticed him now, and they noticed the on coming attack. A voice coming from the rock grouping in front of him reached Alex's ears.

"That was so not ten minutes!"

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**AN: Ah, yes action, and more to come. Honestly, I do look at the reviews you guys make-even if I don't reply. They are a huge confidence booster, and when I'm slacking off I tend to look at them. Ah..This chapter was about two thousand words, not including the two author's notes. A fun fact about the European Beach Tree, a lot of them in America are the same- the species is very closely related. Right-o! Looking forward to reading your replies. **


	9. Chapter 9

_**AN: Well, I would say that your review stroked my ego very well. This chapter tops out at 4,105 words according too - Ain't that swell? I would like to state that I own all OC's (Feel free to contact me if you have a story idea, I'd be very interested) But I do not own Alex Rider, nor any of the characters you recognize, and that's my disclaimer. Once again, thank you for all of your lovely reviews. Enjoy!**  
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_Can't stop, can't fucking stop! _Alex thought has he scrambled up from the damp ground. K-Unit was approaching fast. _Need cover fire, need to run. Need to get away. _

"Yagh!" Alex exclaimed as paint-balls whizzed by him. He was in the middle of a messy paintball shoot out! _It's cover from your teammates, doing their best to pin down K-Unit. Can't let them waste bullets though, need to move fast. _

_Move, keep low, change directions on whim-go for cover. _Was Alex's mantra, he stuck low to the ground letting the underbrush of the young woods protect him as much as it could. The brush that shielded him was scraggly and thin,often making the paint-balls pop before they hit him.

A paintball struck his arm with hard _**pomft. **_Paint-balls in general didn't hurt as much as a rubber bullet, but the high powered compressed air that made the guns function made getting hit _not _fun. Then again getting hit with anything was usually _not _fun. _At least, it wasn't a kill shot. There! I have to get over that rock with out getting struck in the back. **Shhff**_ A paintball whizzed by his ear, and Alex hit the forest floor hard. He needed some type of shield that would cover him while he tried to get over the rock. _My backpack would work if I was quick enough. _Still face down in the wet dirt, Alex dug one foot in, ready to use it to create forward momentum. Grabbing the earth with his hands Alex sprang forward. Using that momentum he moved low and fast, darting under logs, and using trees as cover. _Ah, hah, I can use the fallen tree in front of the rock to launch myself up onto, and then slide down the other-side. If I miss, or don't make it over I'll be a open target. _ Diving behind another tree, Alex looked behind him to gauge K-Unit's positions.

In the dark, and the distance it was rather hard to tell who was who. The Unit behind him seemed to be trying to flank the outcropping. _We need to move faster. _Taking a few deep breaths, Alex shot out of his hiding spot, and raced again towards the log. There was no more cover, the only way he had a chance to make it was to move fast. _I imagine that I look like a deer running away from a hunter, it would be rather accurate description._

He was upon the log now. The log, was from a recently fallen tree, still sturdy enough to hold him, and not covered in undergrowth. It was a meter or so off the ground, a perfect hurtle to get over the rock. _Here goes nothing._ With a breath Alex launched himself up, onto the log, and with another breath he sent himself flying.

Ian's voice traveled through his head as time slowed. The words were from a climbing trip in Northern Spain, when they climbed some of the Picos De Europe's limestone faces. _Bend your knees, you don't want to land on the rock face flat, it'll knock the wind out of you. Make sure your hands find holds, and that the top of your feet land on the rock. Protect your head, don't swing forward and bash it against the rock. Now depending on the rock type you're climbing..._

Suddenly he was on the rock, his hands scrambling at a crack on the surface above him. His lower body slammed down on the the rock and Alex bent his knees and stretched out his elbows like he was doing a push up; to take the impact. Alex used his recoil momentum to pull himself up-_**Smack! **_A paintball hit his backpack- and across, then swinging his legs around Alex slide down the rock to the trench where his teammates were taking cover.

He was barely spared a glance. Ikan, spoke up from his crouched position "We got two from C-Unit, one was in a tree the other was trying to surprise us by being in ahead of us, Devil got the two behind the log. K-Unit is towards our starting position, and coming closer. That leaves B-Unit, and the two other agents. We need to keep moving." Not waiting to see nods Ikan scurried towards the opening in the rocks.

They were headed in the direction in the river, he could tell by the slope of the hill which was gradually declining. There were a few moments where Alex felt like he was moving to fast and wasn't in control of his limbs, times where he just let his body fall forwards, trying to make his feet some how stay under him. He reached out towards an on coming tree to steady himself, when in front of him a resounding _**Smack! **_Happened. Looking at Ricochet Alex noticed he'd been hit in the head with one of K-Unit's paint-balls.

"I'm dead!" The Australian man managed to mutter out while rubbing the back of his head with a wince. Alex could sympathize with the elder, the shots hurt like hell. He couldn't stop and see if Ricochet had anything on his person that could help them. _Shiit! K-Unit! _With a glance behind him, Alex spotted the approaching unit completely ignoring the fallen Ricochet and continue on after the remaining spies. The four large men were flying down the hill like it had stairs, making it look _easy._

The ground beneath Alex's combat books became mushy, and harder to run in. Mud started sticking to his already heavy combat boots, slowing him down. They were nearing the river, he could hear fast moving water hitting rocks ahead of him. With one last push Alex broke through the shrubs and found himself on the bank of the river. He stumbled to a stop, tripping over some debris, Alex steady himself against a large rock, Looking at the river, he could tell it was fast moving, there were slime covered rocks which poked out of the water at sharp angles causing white water to form. _This isn't like the map! The map said there would be a small gorge! I could jump over a gorge! I can't jump over this! Hell, I probably couldn't even swim through this without cracking my head open!_

He had no idea how to get over it. K-Unit was behind them, he couldn't think about it at the moment. _Run, Run run! _

"Split up!" The breathless shout came from Sair, who then grabbed a Ikan's shirt and took off upstream. Alex looked at Shadow; Shadow was already looking at him. He shrugged, she quirked an eyebrow. A paintball flew between them.

With a jolt they both sprang into action, running down stream as fast as they could hopping from one rock to another, trying to balance on the very uneven shore. The rocks were lose, and wet from the water's constant mist. Their trek down the bank, following the water was one full of stumbles and muttered curses. It didn't look like anyone from K-Unit had followed them. Alex was relieved, now they had time to figure out how to get over the river, and then get to the end point with out getting shot.

After a few more minutes of stone hopping, stumbling and muttering, Shadow who was ahead of him called for them to stop with a simple hand signal. Besides muttered curses and a few helping hands they hadn't said anything to each other. This section of the river was calmer, and wider. It moved slower, and there was a log jam that reached half way across the water, ending just before the current. The drift wood didn't look particularly stable. _If I could get out onto the logs in the river.._

Alex swung his backpack around opening it just enough to let the climbing rope out. Dropping the long length of rope onto the ground Alex re-closed his pack and set it back on his shoulders. Eying the rope on the ground he spoke to Shadow.

"If one of us were to throw one end of the rope, up and over that branch." Alex pointed to a branch hung over the river by the log jam. The bark was rough looking, and the limb looked sturdy enough to hold his weight. "Then tie a knot, and make it secure enough to hold our weight we could take turns swinging across to the far bank, landing in the grass there." Alex moved his pointing arm, downwards from the limb to a patch of sand and grass along the shore. He watched Shadow look from the rope, to the limb, and then to the far shore. Sighing, the woman brought a dirty hand up to her face and rubbed her forehead in thought. Alex payed close attention when she spoke.

"We'll have to weight the end so when we throw over the branch it'll it swings back to us, and it might not be long enough."

The pile of sticks and logs that made up the jam in the river wasn't sturdy. Several times Alex had placed his weight on a branch only to hear it crack and groan. It took long agonizing minutes of cautious steps but finally they reached a spot where they could stop and throw the rope. Shadow handed him a thick stick that was as long as his forearm to tie to the end of the rope. Once the stick was tied to the rope, Alex gave it some slack, and held it loosely in his hands. Testing his footing he decided he was balanced enough to try and throw the weighted rope.

Taking a deep breath, Alex started to swing the rope. Back, and forth, back and forth. When it was at zenith of it's arch he let go. The rope flew through his hands, the weighted end went up, up and then over the branch. The far end of the rope started to go down, and Alex grabbed his end of the rope to stop the uncoiling rope. The weighted end came swinging at him like a battering ram. It was going to hit him, and he couldn't get out of the way- Shadow caught it. Breathing a sigh of relief, Alex went to task on tying the rope. The knot he was using was another thing Ian had taught him. The knot closed when it was tugged, acting very much like a lasso. Alex doubled checked the length of the rope, the knot, and the distance he would have to cross. Taking a few steps back, Alex held the rope. _Deep breaths, it isn't like you haven't done this before in gym class. _With that thought Alex started running forward, towards the edge of the log jam. Pushing himself off the jam, Alex grabbed the rope higher tightening his grip; he was in the air now moving fast towards the on coming bank.

Alex let go of the rope with one hand and let it slide through the other. He uncurled his legs, landing in a crouch on the sandy part of the opposite shore. Alex's pack thudded against his back as he landed making him fall to his knees momentarily. Shoving himself off the ground with a grunt, Alex turned to face Shadow. He hurled the weighted rope back to Shadow who reached out and caught it. Alex scooted off to the side so the Shaodw would have a place to land. He watched as she carefully backed up on the logs, before running like he did. She was in the air, and then by his side in seconds.

Brushing some sand from her legs, Shadow stood up.

"Good thinking, Devil." She commented gesturing vaguely at the rope swing they had made. Alex nodded in acknowledgment of the praise, before replying.

"Any idea where we need to go?" He asked, moving the weight of his back pack around so it would rest comfortably on his back.

"We need to head North, but also away from the river." Shadow said, eying the moon's position in the sky

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They were being followed. Sair could tell from the voices behind her and Ikan. She had chosen to follow the river upwards, and picked the nearest teammate to go with her, that had been Ikan. Unlike down stream, where the river turned sharply, here there was no immediate bend to hide them from view, so when K-Unit had burst out of the forest they saw the two spies and followed them. _Why couldn't they split up like we did? It would be so much easier to deal with two grunts instead of four. _

A few paint-balls had whizzed by since then, hitting the rocks at their hands and feet. The only reason why they hadn't gotten hit was because both parties were running on uneven ground causing for some slightly amusing stumbles. They were getting closer to a point on the river where they could cross safely. A glance behind her showed that their up hill scramble was working. K-Unit with their massive packs, and the amount of rocks her and Ikan were sending down the slope was contributing in slowing the unit down.

"There!" Ikan pointed up the river, a tree had fallen creating a bridge across the river's gorge. With nimble steps Ikan hopped up onto the tree, and started across it. His gun was out, and aimed towards the running unit behind them. He let a few shots off in their direction so he could make it across the dead tree without getting painted red. Sair followed carefully, but quickly. Once she got to the other side Ikan stopped his cover fire, and spoke to her.

"I don't think we'll be able to push the log off this edge of the bank without getting shot. We should continue on, try to lose them in the dark of the woods." Sair nodded in agreement, and followed Ikan silently into the woods heading north towards the flag.

It was close to half an hour later when they stopped again. Sair, and Ikan had lost K-Unit's tail a while back. The two of them had doubled back and hid in underbrush and waited for the Unit to pass them. Ikan had taken out the map, and was using the star's light to read by. It was an awfully bright night, the moon was full and there was little cloud cover. Sair saw him checking his compass, and then the frown at the map.

"Hey, Sair?" Ikan said without looking up, still frowning at the map in his hands.

"Yeah?" Sair questioned, her right eyebrow arching up at him.

"I uh, I think we're lost."

_Ugh. _"That's wonderful." Her voiced oozed with sarcasm.

There was a SMACK! As a paintball collided into a tree behind them. The paintball in question had come from the north, the direction they had been traveling in. K-Unit had figured out that they had doubled back! _They must have heard Ikan, and I talking. Great. _

"Quick! Get up a tree, it's our only cover." Sair yelled over to Ikan, who was already climbing a thickly leaved tree. Sair grabbed onto a tree to her left and started to climb up. Paint balls were smashing into her pack, and the tree limbs around her. One landed right were she was about to place her and, splattering her with the ricocheted residue. Another two hit her leg before she was able to climb higher into the tree.

Soon she was able to find a spot where she had ample cover from people. Swinging her gun off her should, Sair checked to see if it was loaded, and that it wouldn't jam when fired. Sssvhst. A paintball whizzed through the leaves hitting the bark next to her face. The red paint flew into her hair, and dribbled down the side of her face. It was going to be a pain to wash out. Sair brought her gun up to her should, and looked down into the forest below her.

"I'm dead!" Came from one of K-Unit. Presumably one of Ikan's paint-balls had hit him, and he now sat there in the open forest, watching his teammates communicate through hand symbols. Looking from the downed soldier, over to the rest of K-Unit Sair could tell that Ikan had them pinned down from his position. But if she was able to get just a bit higher, the angle of her shot would change and she would be able to shoot them as well. It would also make her open for attack.

Adjusting her shoulder strap, Sair climbed the tree higher. The branches were starting to sway with her weight, and creak and groan. A few paint-balls came close to hitting her, one tapped her right boot, the paint mixed with the mud to create a pinkish goo. Sair brought her gun back up, and aimed it down, through the foliage. The soldiers were more preoccupied with Ikan's shots then what she was doing. She took a breathe, and as she let it out shot.

There was a yelp, as a splash of yellow hit dark hair.

"I'm dead!" Another voice rang out. The man threw his gun away from him and sat down, hand on his head. The two members left, huddled together whispering to each other. Sair aimed her gun again. Pap! The recoil made the paint ball splatter the leaves on the ground with runny yellow paint. She'd missed. The last two members of K-Unit looked up, then nodded to each other and sent themselves into motion. One of them shot into the trees where she was at, spraying the leaves and branches with blood red paint. The other she thought was doing the same to Ikan's tree.

The barrage of paint stopped suddenly. Afraid it was a trap, Sair slowly uncoiled from behind her backpack. The two alive men where just leaving their fallen comrades, the 'dead's' radios in their hands. _Shit_ thought Sair, _there went our chance at inside information, at least the two are gone now_. Taking a breath she slowly eased her way out of the tree, only once did she stopped in the lower, sturdier branches to look at the ground around them. Making sure the alive members of K-Unit had left. She continued her descent once she was sure they weren't around.

She whistled up to Ikan, to give the all clear and he dropped out of the trees shortly after. Going over to one fallen man who was silently glaring at her Sair checked his backpack to see if he had anything useful in it. After working it from the 'dead' mans shoulders she crouched down and opened it. There was a canteen of water, a few food rations and water purifying pills, along with a rain hat and camouflage paint. Taking the hat, and paint she stuffed them in her pack. Then she drank the rest of her water, and replaced the now emptied canteen with the downed man's one. She left him the rations.

"Find anything useful?" Sair whispered to Ikan, moving fast and low over to her own teammate.

"More water, a hat, and some wire." Ikan whispered back, sweat was dripping down his face as he closed the backpack. Despite it being night, the weather was humid and the smell in the atmosphere promised of heavy rain. Whipping a hand across her forehead Sair whispered back to the Malaysian man.

"We should keep moving." Her own sweat was trickling down her back, making her shiver slightly. Ikan nodded in agreement. With another swig of water they were off into the woods.

"Hey, Sair we still don't know where we are." Ikan glanced back at her when he spoke, stopping momentarily.

"Well, we know that the flag is to our west, and over a hill, I think we should start heading up hill, and away from the river." With a nod the man continued walking. Their trek was mostly silent, and Sair was on hyper alert for the last two members of K-Unit. She asked Ikan in a quiet tone where he thought they might be. His answer drifted back to her on the light wind.

"I believe they went towards the flag, B-Unit is probably protecting it along with the two other agents. I'd make sense if they centered their efforts there." Sair gave no reply. She glanced at her watch. 1:54, they had three hours and thirty six minutes to get to the flag before their time was up.

"Hey, Ikan." Sair hissed, "we should pick up the pace." They trudged on.

The weather was getting worst. The forest was filled with the noise of light thunder and swishing trees. Not long ago was it that Sair had taken out the hat she had looted from the 'dead' solider. The thunder grew louder, and the trees started to shake violently. The sky cracked open with a a fork of lighting landing somewhere in the distance and it started to rain upon her and Ikan. The drops were fat, and heavy. The ground was getting slippery, and a small river soon formed by their feet as they tired to trudge up hill in the deluge. They paused in the over hang of a large rock, taking brief sips of water from their canteens. And munched on caffeine pills they had in their packs. The rock they used as a land mark, and shielding the map from the rain they used it to pin point where they were at.

"Okay!" Ikan strained his voice to be heard over the rolling thunder. "We're here, at this rock face. See how the hill side gets incredibly steep and then levels out?" He lightly skimmed his finger over the rock, and then over some lines on the map. "We don't want to be on this-" He stopped as a fork of lightening light up the sky, before continuing again. "We don't want to be the plateau when it's storming." Sair looked at the map. He was right, if they were up there on the plateau they'd be walking lightening rods.

"That doesn't give us much choice!" Sair yelled back at him, her voice struggling to make it's self heard through the heavy wind. "We either have to weight out the storm, or make our way around the plateau!" Ikan frowned in response and took another look at the map.

"I think your right!" He confirmed. "We don't want to try one of these crevices, we could get caught up in a flash flood and drown." He paused, folding up the map. and replaced it in his bag. "So what do you want to do Sair?"

She paused, tipping her head forwards she watched the rain stream off the lip of her hat before replying.

"We'll wait, if this doesn't let up in twenty minutes then we'll start walking." Ikan nodded and moved closer to the rock-face trying to get a bit of shelter from the pouring rain. Sair joined him, and they sat there together looking over the dreary Wales country side. It was 2:34.

Fifteen minutes had passed when the rain finally let up enough for Ikan to decide it was safe enough to cross the plateau above them. The slope of the hill was slick, and the rocks they climbed were lose. Sair tested her weight on each one before she pulled herself up, making sure it would hold. Several time she had to duck her head, as pebbles from Ikan's missteps came tumbling down to meet her. The climb in normal weather would have been fairly easy, but it was still very windy. Their clothes were soaked, and soon she was chilled to the bone. Her fingers were losing sensation, which caused her to grab onto some lose rocks. It took them fifteen minutes to get to the top of the cliff. Ikan helped her over the edge offering her a small smile, before collapsing against a small rock, breathing heavily. They took a few moments to gather themselves, drink some more water and regain their breath.

Standing up, Sair saw that the somewhat level ground on the hill side stretched for a good while, large boulders were stringed about.

"Come on." She said, offering a hand to help Ikan up, he took it. "We don't have a lot of time left to get the flag." This time, Sair lead them. They picked their way through the maze of large rocks and small shrubs that were scattered about like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

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_**AN: I did some research, well. I did more research for this then I thought I would- and these are just some of the links I used. Take out the () and you're golden. I would like to say that your review are helpful, also I've been thinking about going over and editing the earlier chapters.**_

_( ) /RockClimbingSpain/NorthernSpain.(html)_

( ) wiki/Picos_de_Europa


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: _Well, hello. It's been awhile, hasn't it? I hope you all enjoy this. It's just over two thousand five hundred words. I'll start on chapter eleven shortly. Enjoy!_**

**_Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Alex Rider, nor any of the plots. All things Alex Rider related belong to Anthony Horowitz. Danke  
_**

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3:30

It was still raining. The rain had started went they were coming down the other side of the hill. Shadow and Alex had made good time getting over the plateau. He'd fallen a few times on the way down, probably straining the muscles in his wrist a bit more then he would have liked. It hurt to put pressure on it. A look at the sky told Alex that the weather would probably be continuing on through-out the morning.

It was wet, cold and he was miserable in his soggy combat boots. They had an hour and thirty minutes left to retrieve the flag. There hadn't been any sign of Ikan, and Sair nor had they seen their hunters. Things were quiet.

"I think the flag is after this next clearing, down that slope and in the forest a fair ways. We should be able to make it in time." Shadow broke through his thoughts. He stole a quick glance at Shadow, what had her file said her real name was? Kair, Keire? Something like that. If he was honest with himself he'd admit that she was rather beautiful, and if he was a bit older he might have tried something.

He wasn't older, and he wasn't going to try anything with her. Besides, if Sabina found out. Well, that would be that. He grimaced slightly at the imagined anger that Sabina would direct at him.

They hiked in silence. Shadow pausing every so often to look at their surroundings. Alex kept his ears peeled, readying himself for an attack. The consistent awareness needed for their task was draining.

Perhaps it was because of this awareness that Alex heard the snap of a branch behind him.

The sound of the cracking stick was ominously loud in the rain. It wasn't natural. Alex reacted before he thought. He launched himself and Shadow, who not expecting it. Flipped him up and over her shoulder. Alex who was surprised at the move, for he had been trying to help and forgot that person he was helping was also a spy, and any good spy had good would react when someone unexpectedly threw themselves at them. Alex let his body become dead weight, boneless. Which made him harder to throw.

He went over her shoulder slowly, and she fell with him. Thankfully both of them managed to miss the paint balls that flew there way. Alex landed under Shadow with a large THUMP. The air was knocked out of him, and he could feel two sharp objects digging into his back. Shadow who landed on top of him, made it hard breathe. Alex could tell she was annoyed at him by the way her eyebrows drew together, and the corner of her mouth scrunched up a bit.

"You could have yelled!" She growled out between her clenching teeth. A paint ball hit the ground to the left of them.

"Fuck." Shadow hissed. Alex shared her sentiments. They were in a sparse, wide forest with young trees. There wasn't much cover to be found.

Foot steps came closer. B-Unit had found them, that also meant they were near the flag. Probably. Alex really hopped that was the case. The wind rushed its way through the trees, making them bend at extreme angles. The branches were whipping about. The weather was getting sever. Why had they been allowed to preform the night exercise if the forecast had shown this?

Maybe someone had it out for the group of spies, or one of the units. It was possible. Alex couldn't think much about it at the moment. With the wind driving rain into his eyes it made it hard to see, it was also hindering the unit behind him. He could tell by their curses and stumbles, they were stumbling over the same fallen branches that he had. It made the fleeing, and chasing harder.

" _**Shhh.**_ Found two of the spies, got them pinned down come'n down the hill. _**Shh**_." The radio contact was broken off by a large clap of thunder. The thunder rolled and groaned together for a few long seconds before rumbling away.

Alex and Shadow stumbled away from the unit behind him, and by the time the rain had let up enough to see a few feet in front of them, they discovered that they had lost the unit, and their sense of direction. They were lost, and didn't have a map to point them in the right direction.

It may have been the fork of lighting that showed them the way. Or it may have been that Shadow's watch had a small compass on the face of it. Secretly Alex liked the idea of navigational lightening. He'd talk to Smithers about the idea. After a few whispered conversations* under the small coverage of a leaning tree, they re found their way to capture the flag.

The two cut through some more woods, happened upon a small clearing which they would cautiously edge around or cross if it was big to keep to the treeline. The wind was constantly changing. The weather would die down and then buffer them at full force the next minute. Alex was soaked to the bone. His pack was water logged, and now weight several pounds heavier then it did at the beginning of the excursion. His clothes were sticking to his skin constricting his movement. They stopped twice, once for a caffeine pill, and another time for a few sips of water while they discussed where to head next.

They continued on for fifteen minutes. Ambling along an animal path. There was a clearing ahead, and Shadow who was in front of him slowed down, and made a 'come here' motion with her hand. Alex walked up besides her, and looked where she was pointing. Ahead, in the clearing was a white..pole. It was a flag pole. They'd reached their final destination. The two of them slowly moved forward, careful not to step on branches that would crack under their pressure. They eased slowly into the shadows of the tree line where Alex took stock of the situation.

The white flag was trying to flutter. The heavy rain, and driving winds that made the rain drops fall with great force was dragging at the flag, making it wrap its self around the flag pole. It looked more like it was being strangled. From his position Alex could see Ben, and Tamara circling the flag post. They were covered by a wooden barricade that looked to be just under a meter and a half tall. He could see no opening, which meant he and Shadow would have to jump over it with out getting smacked by a paint-ball. Alex hadn't seen B-Unit since their run in on the mountainside a good half an hour ago. He wondered if they were hiding in the clearing edges waiting to take a pot shot at anyone who ran towards the flag. Perhaps the flag was bait.

He hadn't seen Sair or Ikan either. It was always a bad idea to split up, hadn't he learned that in any of the horror movies that Tom made him watch? They needed a plan.

"Hey, Shadow. Do you have any ideas?" Alex asked, gesturing towards the flag. The Mossad agent turned from the clearing to look at him before replying.

"I had hoped you had one."

"Oh." Alex breathed. "Well." He began, then stopped to think. "Here's my idea.."

It took less then five minutes to outline his plan, and when he was done explaining his idea Shadow's eyebrows had reached her hairline.

"You think this, this" She waved her hand in the air, trying to indicate his general plan, "will really work?" Shadow sounded dubious.

Alex gave a little shrug in reply. "I don't see why it won't."

"Alright then, if this fails I'm blaming you." Shadow whispered, poking Alex squarely on the chest, hard enough for the teenager to rock back on his heels.

"Fine by me, but-" Alex was interrupted by Shadow's fist connecting with his face. Grimacing slightly, Alex touched his upper lip. His lip, and nose were bleeding, and nose bleeds tended to bleed a lot.

"Sorry Devil, I just thought that-" Shadow said, inspecting the amount of blood that was now gushing out of Alex's nose.

"Naw, it's good. 'Elp me owt here." Alex managed to say, smiling as he wiped his bloody nose with the sleeve of his uniform.

Tamara Knight shook her head trying to get the rain that was consistently falling, out of her eyes. It made her hair that was plastered to her face, well out of her face, she imagined she looked like a wet dog. It had been raining for a few hours now. She was cold, wet and wanted hot food badly. Being out in the open wasn't helping, heck nothing in her situation was helping her stay warm. She had been on high alert since Agent Daniels had thought up this _plan. _The whole idea was folly.

Her ear piece crackled. "_**Shhh.**_ Found two of the spies, got them pinned down come'n down the hill. _**Shh**_."

Tamara let her eyes linger on the south side of the clearing. She couldn't see more then a few feet in front of her, the rain had been coming in waves making seeing anything past a arms distance hard. She was finding she didn't like the weather in Wales, she enjoyed the warm sunny atmosphere of Washington D.C. Although, in D.C it could get ridiculously muggy the air could clam up and be thick like soup. Things could certainly be worse, they could be in the arctic, or the hot jungles of South America. No, she was rather happy to be in Wales. Well, at least happier.

She couldn't lie to herself, she would to others if asked. Alex being here did make a difference. The short time she'd know him Tamara had found herself grudgingly admiring the boys' spying ability. She was some what delighted that he looked almost _happy _to see her. He had certainly grown. Tamara shook her head, letting water dribble slowly down her back. Now was not the time to linger on such matters. She had to focus on making Agent Daniels' plan better. Honestly standing behind the flimsy excuse of a barrier did not make her feel safe. Even if this was just a training exercise.

She was also a bit miffed at Agent Daniels. _She _was the senior agent, and she had a much better plan then his. Hell, he didn't even have a plan, no. He thought standing out here like sitting ducks was a great idea. Daniels hadn't even asked her what she thought! It was just like a man not to consider that she had a voice. And yet, it was partly her fault for not speaking up. Tamara frowned she had gone along with it, and now the plan had to be followed. It was too bad mutiny was looked down upon.

It had been thirty minutes since their last radio contact with B-Unit, and K-Unit and reported in before that saying they had lost two members to the spies, and were now in pursuit.

"_**Shh, **__this is K-Unit to base. __**shhdftk**__ Do you copy?__**Shh.**__" _The rain made communication hard. The radio signals were struggling the few miles between walkie-talkies. Agent Daniels had heard the radio crackle and had come over to listen.

"_**Shh, **this is base, we copy. **Shht.**" _Tamara responded, sending a raised eyebrow to Daniels, for he wasn't paying attention to the clearing. Not that he could see anything, but the point to keeping watch was to watch for threats. And that meant looking outside the barrier, not at her radio. He gave an impish grin and continued to walk around the muddy circle they had made behind the wooden barricade.

"_**Shh, **this is Wolf reporting in. We've got two of the spies down, but they managed to get us as well. It's just you two and B-**Dfssshtsfht.**" _A large rolling thunder cut off the rest of the transmittance from K-Unit.

So there were two left. Tamora wondered if Alex was one of the ones left standing. Time would tell. There was an hour left in the time limit. Tamora brought the radio back up to her face.

"_**Shh, **this is base to B-Unit, do you copy?** Shft**." _Tamora brought the radio up to her ear to hear the response.

"_**Shhd-ft." **_The connection failed. _Damnit, this weather is horrible. _

"_**Shhhh, **Thi **shhh **is B-Un** shshsdf." **_The reply was crackled, and hardly coherent enough to understand.

"_**Shhf **This is ba**shhstdf" **_A fork of lighting arched through the sky and lit up a tree to the south of the clearing. The rain put it out quickly.

"_**Shhf, **B-Unit what is your ETA to base?**Shhft.**" _

"_**Shh, **With this weather? About twenty minutes, we're going as fast as we can. **Shhhf**." _The answer was prompt, and the man behind the radio sounded annoyed. In regular weather they probably would have already been there. A gust of wind set the rain falling at a different angle then it had been before. Tamora shivered. It was going to be a long hour.

~~!

Alan Blunt stepped out of his office, quietly shut is door- double checked that he had locked it. The gray man nodded at his receptionist before stepping out into the all,shutting that door behind him as well. He seemed to float down the hallway, seamlessly he turned to face a door. He knocked once, then twice in repetition, before laying his hand flat against the glace. If he was anyone else he would have smiled at the secret code, but he was Alan Blunt, the Gray Man who ran the special operations unit of MI6.

"Come in." Said a monotone voice behind the heavy set door. Alan stepped into the office, closing the door behind him softly. The inhabitant of the office was sitting behind her desk. The office was gray not to large, and not small enough to be stuffy. The only spark of color the room had was a picture on the owners desk. The photograph was in a neutral light gray pastel color frame, which stood out slightly from the shiny dark surface of the owners desk. Alan Blunt, adjusted his glasses and breathed, letting out a breathe that wasn't quite a sigh. They gray man took out a manila envelope and dropped it on the desk in-front of him.

"We have a problem." He stated, bringing a hand up to his glasses to fiddle with them. He was nervous.

"Oh?" The woman behind the desk queered, one eyebrow quirked up. She was still looking at her computer screen.

"Yes." Blunt paused for a moment, "a very serious problem."

The woman behind her desk finally looked up at her boss, her slightly . "Oh." She breathed out, one hand was brought up to rub viciously at her face, before collapsing back into her chair. "Shit."

"Eloquently put Mrs. Jones." Alan replied, sitting in the chair opposite of her. He controlled the slight twitch his lips wanted to do, he would not smile. This was not a smiling matter. Although, sometimes Mrs. Jones made it hard not too. Best damn deputy he ever had. It was a shame really.

* * *

**AN: _So, there it was. I have a few personal opinions bellow this Author's Note. _**

*_( As a side note, yelling and talking in a forest carries quite a ways. Really any noise does, things become surprisingly loud in a forest. You'd be surprised, I'll be walking in the woods and the path would be a few hundred yards/meters to my right and I can here people laughing, and talking. It's always best to err on the side of caution. )_

_Another thing, it would be a good thing to remember that when making a plan you should ask people's opinions, and take their suggestions seriously, even if they seem stupid they might highlight a flaw in your plan. It is always good to listen, always. There are more sides to a story then just two. Us humans think is two dimensional terms, so linear! I don't mean to preach, I just think this is good advice to follow, and it's saved me from quite a few arguments.  
_


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